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September 18, 2016

Schadenfreude 199 (A Continuing Series)

That sound you heard coming from Fenway Park on Saturday was the sound of shovels of dirt being tossed on top of the Yankees' casket. ...

For the second time in three games, the Yankees could not hold a 5-2 lead, as Joe Girardi's nightmare continued with another terrible loss. The 6-5 defeat gave the Red Sox the first three games of the series and exposed key Yankees flaws.

Boston can make it a clean four-game sweep Sunday night, a full-fledged Yankees massacre.

The Red Sox have beaten the Yankees in every way, and Saturday it was a wild pitch by Adam Warren in the seventh inning that allowed the eventual winning run to score as Mookie Betts raced across the plate. ...

The Yankees have lost four straight and six of seven. ...

The Yankees have 14 games remaining. They are seven games back of the Red Sox in the AL East, buried in fourth place. In the wild card, the Yankees have five teams ahead of them and were 4.5 back of the second spot with the others playing Saturday night. ...

The Red Sox are playing with the kind of confidence that enables a team to be in first place in September. The Yankees make critical mistakes and continue to play sloppy baseball.

The past seven weeks have been quite a ride for the Yankees, but that journey appears to be coming to an end following another crushing loss at the hands of the first-place Red Sox.

The Yankees held a three-run lead against David Price in the fifth before the Red Sox stormed back for four runs, slapping the Yankees with a 6-5 loss, their third straight and sixth in the past seven games.

The Yankees arrived at Fenway Park on Thursday with a chance to catch the Red Sox atop the AL East.

At this point, the best they can hope for is to survive after blowing another lead in a 6-5 loss on Saturday.

They dropped their fourth straight game, blowing another three-run lead in the process. They also have lost six of seven since their seven-game winning streak ended. ...

"A lot's changed in 48 hours, really," Brett Gardner said. "Thursday, we're an out away from being a game back in the wild card and three games in the division. Now, we're seven games [back] in the division and I don't even know in the wild card. We put ourselves in a bad position." ...

At least that's how it felt Saturday afternoon after a team desperate for wins blew a three-run lead at Fenway and fell to the Red Sox, 6-5. Their old rivals have purpled the Yanks' wild-card hopes and, even in this unusual pinstriped season, those hopes seem un-revivable.

The truth is, regardless of how exciting the young players might be, maybe this club just isn't good enough to make the playoffs right now. ...

When they needed victories the most, the Yanks have stumbled. They have lost four in a row, their longest losing streak in more than six weeks. They've dropped six of their last seven games. They've lost two consecutive series for the first time since early July. There are only 14 games remaining, including the series finale Sunday night. ...

Joe Girardi was defiant after the game when asked if it's difficult to keep the faith when things have slid so much.

"No," Girardi said. ... "You have to go play better; that's all," he said. "That's the bottom line. We've shown that we can do that, but we have to go do it."